Inner Compass Consults

Birth education with parents is often fun, and joyful for everyone involved. But it's also important to talk to parents about the hard stuff. The unexpected surprises they aren't planning, or hoping for, the things they are avoiding and would rather cast aside in the " I don't need to learn about that" list. I've come to realize that holding space for these conversations and encouraging parents to imagine how they might move through the event if it did actually happen is an act of compassion. I can't count how many times the home birth planning parents came back to me and said how glad they were that we talked about hospital transfer, or the folks who were whole heartedly committed to not using pain medication let me know that they were able to have more ease and grace with themselves around changing their mind in labor because we included the compassionate use of drugs and epidurals in the class topics. Preparing parents for a variety of possible outcomes and coping strategies helps them to tap into their inner strengths and knowing so they can do whatever they need to do to move through it.